Petition to Rename Fall Weekend to Indigenous Peoples’ DayIn 2009, after ongoing student protests by Natives at Brown and resistance from the University, media, and organizations in and around Providence and Rhode Island, the Faculty Executive Committee voted to change the name of Columbus Day to Fall Weekend. Although the motion passed by majority vote, it was not unanimous and the name “Fall Weekend” was a compromise between Native students pushing for change and the University.

We, as Native students in 2015, want to continue this long legacy of fighting for our visibility on campus by petitioning the University to change the name of Fall Weekend to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We are formally requesting that the University vote to make this change to promote the on-campus visibility of the resistance and resilience of Native peoples and Native students on Brown’s campus against the continued attempts at disempowerment, disenfranchisement, erasure, and genocide that began with the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Although the current name of the holiday, “Fall Weekend,” halts the active celebration of Columbus’ torture and genocide and the dawn of the transatlantic slave trade, this is the bare minimum that Brown University can do.

Renaming the weekend to “Fall Weekend” does not absolve the University of complicity in Native erasure either. Our history is still rendered invisible with this name. As Ginetta Sagan said, “Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor.” This is not only silence about our continued resilience, it is also University silence in the face of the needs of Native students on campus, and silence about institutionalizing support for us. Renaming the holiday Indigenous People’s Day has the power to transform this day into a celebration of the cultures and histories of the original inhabitants of the Americas and students on campus at Brown in the past, present and future.

At a school where task forces have been convened to create a Diversity Action Plan and where there are ongoing conversations and celebrations of “diversity” on campus, there are still antagonistic structural and social forces here that led to the release of several hateful and racist Brown Daily Herald articles this past week, while students of color are still neglected on campus. We, as Native students, do not exist simply to provide the University with statistics or to provide institutionalized organizations on campus with “diverse” perspectives. As an educational institution, Brown University should take advantage of opportunities to institutionalize the education of its students, rather than letting this burden of education about Native peoples fall on a small student organization. As students of this university, we deserve just as much institutional support as our peers and believe that changing Fall Weekend to Indigenous People’s Day is one of many steps to do so.

Changing the name to Indigenous Peoples’ Day is one step on a long road towards institutionalizing support for students, faculty, and administrators of color. If the University is truly serious about creating a comprehensive and effective Diversity Action Plan, then this step needs to be taken as a first action in the Diversity Action Plan.

This is not just a symbolic or political stance that we are taking. Our continuing fight for Native visibility on campus has consequences for us as students, Native communities, and the greater campus community of students of color. We are living testaments to Native resistance and we are requesting a celebration of ourselves, and millions of others like us, rather than a University erasure of the genocide that we had to fight back to get here. This renaming of Fall Weekend is just one small step in a longer walk towards institutionalizing real support for Native students. This petition will not be the end of this discussion, but a beginning. Our voices will continue to sound upon this campus.

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We, the undersigned, are indivduals who urge the Faculty Executive Committee to rename the Fall Weekend holiday to 'Indigenous Peoples' Day'

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Timestamp

Name

Email

Comments (Optional)

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Jieyi Cai

jieyi_cai@brown.edu

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Alex Karim

alexandria_karim@brown.edu

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Victor Bramble

victor_bramble@brown.edu

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Haley De La Rosa

haley_delarosa@brown.edu

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Jessica Brown

k_marlea_brown@brown.edu

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Priya Patel

priya_patel@brown.edu

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Jonatan Perez

Jonatan_Perez@brown.edu

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Signe Swanson

signe_swanson@brown.edu

.

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Cherise Pabia

cherise_pabia@brown.edu

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Yalidy Matos

yalidy_matos@brown.edu

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Sam Heft-Luthy

samuel_heft-luthy@brown.edu

46

Kent Smith

kent_smith@brown.edu

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Gregory Lowry

gregory_lowry@brown.edu

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Yesenia Valverde

yesenia_valverde@brown.edu

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Seb Pihan

samuel_pihan@brown.edu

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Mina Asayesh-Brown

mina_asayesh-brown@brown.edu

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Francesca Lim

francesca_lim@brown.edu

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Liz Oakley

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Karine Liu

karine_liu@brown.edu

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Rakel Galeano

rakel_galeano@brown.edu

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Britt Edelen

britton_edelen@brown.edu

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Anastasiya Gorodilova

anastasiya_gorodilova@brown.edu

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Daniel Jason

daniel_jason@brown.edu

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Evan Silver

evan_silver@brown.edu

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Amy Miao

amy_miao@brown.edu

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Thoralf Island

thoralf_island@brown.edu

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Lidwina Bell

lidwina_bell@brown.edu

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Samantha Kiernan

samantha_kiernan@brown.edu

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Melodi Dincer

melodi_dincer@brown.edu

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May Shum

may_shum@brown.edu

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Molly Sandstrom

Molly_Sandstrom@brown.edu

66

Andrew Smyth

andrew_smyth@brown.edu

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Melanie Ambler

melanie_ambler@brown.edu

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Julian Gau

julian_gau@brown.edu

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Sofia Rudin

sofia_rudin@brown.edu

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Andrew John Lawrence

andrew_lawrence@brown.edu

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Evan Lehmann

evan_lehmann@brown.edu

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Molly Naylor-Komyatte

molly_naylor-komyatte@brown.edu

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julia Peña

julia_pena@brown.edu

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Tim Ittner

timothy_ittner@brown.edu

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Kelly Carey-Ewend

kelly_carey-ewend@brown.edu

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Maria Garcia

maria_garcia@brown.edu

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Sarah Day Dayon

sarah_day_dayon@brown.edu

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Aidan Dunbar

Aidan_Dunbar@brown.edu

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koko_nakajima@brown.edu

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Maryori Conde

Maryori_conde@brown.edu

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Ian Pearsall

ian_pearsall@brown.edu

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Ebube Chuba

ebube_chuba@brown.edu

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Matlaleng Babatunde

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Jessica Sosa

jessica_sosa@brown.edu

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Caroline Turner

caroline_turner@brown.edu

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Devin Howard

devin_howard@brown.edu

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Sarah Marion

sarah_marion1@brown.edu

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Sophie Marsh

sophie_marsh@brown.edu

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Paula Choconta

paula_choconta@brown.edu

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esmeraldaa lopez

esmeralda_m_lopez@brown.edu

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Katherine Jimenez

katherine_jimenez@brown.edu

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Ryan Greene

Jerz

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Jonathan Adam

jonathan_adam@brown.edu

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Marion Wellington

marion_wellington@brown.edu

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Tamar Kaminski

tamar_kaminski@brown.edu

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Hadley Sorsby-Jones

hadley_sorsby-jones@brown.edu

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Belinda Zhou

belinda_zhou@brown.edu

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Ana Castro

ana_castro@brown.edu

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Jeremy Shur

jeremy_shur@brown.edu

100

Lauren Maunus

lauren_maunus@brown.edu

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